Breaking The Chain On E-mail Chain Letters Junk Mail Q & A Answers to some of the most common junk mail questions that we get. Ask The Help Desk What Are Those Empty Boxes With Red X's? Sites Of The Month Great Sites To Check Out In January! Short Tutorial Making Your ISP's Homepage Your Start Page

Hello goNDTC Internet Customers! Is this the year you are REALLY going to get into better physical shape, eat smarter, and take off a few of those extra pounds you've put on through the years? Well, we've got some helpful sites listed in this month's eNewsletter to get you started in the right direction. May you meet or exceed all of the goals you set for 2004! The goal of each of our monthly eNewsletters is to keep our subscribers informed regarding their Internet connection and to improve their Internet experience. To meet this goal, each monthly newsletter will usually contain information related to: Warnings on a recent virus or e-mail hoax that may affect you An update on new services and other local interests An answer to a frequently asked Internet related question Some fun, seasonal websites to check out A short, step-by-step tutorial on an e-mail or browser related task We think you'll find the information contained in this newsletter to be a valuable tool for enhancing your Internet experience. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions that you would like to submit, please click: HERE . To see what's inside this issue, take a look at the index to the left and thanks for reading! - The goNDTC Team

Breaking The Chain - On E-mail Chain Letters

Everybody's received them before--chain letters or e-mail messages that promise you a big return for just a small investment. The problem is that not only will you receive little or no money on your "investment," but it is against the law to send or participate in a chain letter scheme. Here's how e-mail chain letter programs work:

The most common type of chain letter sent by e-mail instructs the recipient to send a small amount of money ($5 is the norm) to the person at the top of a list of ten people. The recipient is then instructed to remove the top name from the e-mail list contained within the e-mail message and forward the e-mail to ten of their friends. The theory is that by the time the recipient's name gets to the top of the list, he/she will receive $5 bills from thousands of chain letter participants. Of course, many times the letter includes a strong warning not to "break the chain" or something bad will happen to the recipient. Also included in the message is a promise of riches within 90 days or so. Yeah right!

Some things to remember about e-mail chain letters:

• It is illegal to start or send a chain letter that promises recipients money or valuable items in return.
  
  
• Many chain letters claim to be legal and even endorsed by the government. This is not true.
  
  
• Despite the claims of e-mail chain letters, they will not make you rich.
  
  
• If you've been the target of a chain letter sent via e-mail, forward the e-mail message to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov .

Back to Top

Junk Mail Q & A - Answers to the most common junk mail questions that we get.

There have been numerous questions sent in about unwanted e-mails. Here are a few of the questions and answers:

Question: I am getting tons of junk mail, but I don't give out my e-mail address. How do they get my e-mail address?

Answer: There are many ways that a spammer gets your e-mail address. For instance, e-mail is used more and more for forwarding interesting e-mails (jokes, pictures, sayings, etc) to lots of people. People's nature, once they receive a "neat" e-mail, is to forward it again to their friends and family. So, say that you receive a neat e-mail, and you forward it to 10 people. In turn each of these people forward it on to 10 of their friends, and each of those sets of 10 forward it on yet again to 10 more. All of a sudden, there are 1000 other people, most of whom you do not know, that have your e-mail address. It only takes one of these people to have a piece of spyware or a virus on their computer to report your e-mail address to the spammers, or to use it in a junk e-mail.


Question: How do I avoid junk mail (a.k.a. spam)?

Answer: Not to sound like a salesperson, but the junk mail filter that NDTC offers is quite good at eliminating most of the junk mail that is out there. It is not 100% effective, but customer reports show that 80% to 90% of the junk mail is being stopped by the junk e-mail filter. This also will reduce your time spent wading through the junk in your inbox for your important e-mail.


Question: I am getting spammed, but the e-mail is not addressed to me. Is the e-postmaster not doing his job?

Answer: E-mails that you get that are not addressed to you visibly have most likely been sent to you using the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field. BCC is normally used when a person is e-mailing someone and wants someone else (a supervisor, co-worker, etc) to see his response, but yet keep that BCC'd address private from the main recipient. The spammer simply puts your e-mail address in the BCC field with another e-mail address in the To: field, making the e-mail look like it does not belong to you.


Question: I am getting spammed from the webmaster of my ISP (or system administrator, or my brother-in-law, etc). I have spoken to this person and they are absolutely positive that they did not send this e-mail, and they do not have a virus. What is happening?

Answer: They are most likely correct in both counts. Today's viruses and worms are incredibly sneaky. They will go through the infected computer's address book and not only use the addresses in the book as targets, but also use them in the From: field, making the e-mail look just like it came from someone else. This way, the virus will go on undetected with no complaints coming to the owner of the infected computer, keeping the virus secret and safe. This is now the norm, so don't blow up at your brother-in-law because he sent you junk e-mail!!! He probably did not send it!


Question: How can I track down the culprit then, if the e-mail addresses that they are using are all bogus or incorrect?

Answer: The one place that information cannot be forged is the e-mail headers. The original headers of the e-mail show the exact Internet address that the e-mail originated from, as well as every other e-mail server that the message passed through on it's journey to you. Unfortunately, most of the e-mail programs make the useful headers very difficult to find, and also do not include them in a forward. If you would like to forward the message on to someone who can read the headers and find the person responsible for the junk e-mail, you must include the contents of the original message in your report. There are too many differences in e-mail programs to go into detail here about finding and including them.


Question: How do I know that my computer is safe and clean, and is not contributing to this problem?

Answer: It is always a good idea to have an updated virus detecting sofware package on your computer. This cannot be stressed enough! E-mail is not the only way that viruses can be contracted: most Instant Messaging programs have security problems that allow viruses to travel over the Internet. There are many good virus protection programs out there, and we highly recommend that our customers use these to do their part to help prevent the virus problems.

Spyware is also a large problem now. What is spyware? Here is part of the definition from http://www.webopedia.com :

"Also called adware, spyware is any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers."

Most virus programs do not recognize spyware or adware as a virus. There are quite a few pieces of (free) software available for download that will help eliminate these programs from your computer.

NDTC has a page on our website full of links to some freeware that we find helpful: http://www.gondtc.com/internet/ndownloads.htm .

Back to Top

Ask The Help Desk  - What Are Those Empty Boxes With Red X's?

Question:  Why do I sometimes receive e-mail messages that contain empty boxes with red "X's" within the message pane rather than pictures? My friends say the same thing happens to them.

Answer:  Graphics and photos contained within an e-mail message are often times not really "stored" within the e-mail message itself but rather on a remote Web server (computer). If the message you receive is in an HTML format (supposed to have graphics or photos as part of the message) and a little box with a red "X" shows up instead of the image, there has probably been a broken connection somewhere between the image link within the e-mail message and the remote Web server where the image is actually stored.

Causes for a broken path between a graphic and a Web server can be as simple as a typo by the person who keyed in the web address of the image's server. When this occurs, the request for the image goes to a server location where no image exists. It is similar to looking for a business at 123 North Main Street when the correct address is 123 South Main Street. The result is the appearance of a little box with a red "X" within the message pane indicating an error message has occurred.

Another possible cause for a broken connection could be due to a power outage somewhere between your computer and the location of the image's Web server.

Additionally, if you are in the habit of downloading your e-mail messages and then closing your Internet connection to review your messages, the same problem will occur. If images within any of your incoming e-mail messages are stored at a remote server location, your computer will not be able to access them as you are no longer connected to the Internet. Again, a little box with a red "X" will indicate an error.

Note: Different e-mail clients and Web browsers use different symbols for a broken graphic link. For instance, Apple's Safari Web browser uses a blue box with a question mark symbol.

Back to Top

Great Sites To Check Out This Month

Choosing A Diet That's Right For You
http://ivillage.com/diet/  -  It's that time of the year where people go on a diet to lose those few extra pounds that they put on over the holidays. There are so many diets to choose from--so which one to try? This site provides details on over 30 diets. Diets include Victoria Principal's 7-Day Bikini Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, the Sweet Tooth's Diet, the New Beverly Hills Diet and more. (There's even a Peanut Butter Diet and an Ice Cream Diet. Now those sound like my kind of diets!) Of course, consult your physician before starting a weight loss program to make sure it's a safe one for you.

Handy Health Calculators And Converters
http://csgnetwork.com/healthconverters.html  -  This site provides converters and calculators that will figure out most anything health-related. Here's a sample of a few: Calorie Intake Calculator, Body Fat Percentage Calculator, Body Surface Area Calculator, Ideal Body Weight Calculator, Walk, Jog Or Run Pace Calculator, Daily Nutrition Requirements Calculator, Exercise Hydration Loss Calculator, Blood Alcohol Level Calculator, and many more. You just plug in the data and the answers are provided for you instantaneously.

Taking The Next Step To Better Fitness
http://www.walkinginfo.org/  -  Ten thousand steps a day is roughly the equivalent of about 30 minutes of activity--or what most health officials encourage people to accumulate at least a few times over the course of each week. If you are just beginning a walking program, the "Health & Fitness" link on this site provides helpful tips and guidelines to get you started off on the right foot. There's no better time to start than right now!

Get In Stride With A Running Program This Year
http://RunnersWorld.com/  -  Running can provide a great method for relieving stress, maintaining fitness, or even losing weight. Whatever your motivation, the RunnersWorld.com website offers a variety of workout plans, stretching techniques, strength training tips, shoe and treadmill reviews, injury prevention information, and more. If you are ready to take the big step of running a marathon this year, the site provides an extensive schedule of marathons to be held throughout North America in 2004, and throughout the world for that matter.

Biking Your Way To Fitness
http://www.Bicycling.com/  -  If you want to get into shape this year while wearing Spandex, Bicycling Magazine's website, www.Bicycling.com, is the place to begin. There's not a more comprehensive site on the Web when it comes to biking fitness. The site includes dozens of in-depth training articles, lots of tutorials on how to fix your broken bike, bulletin board forums, and reviews on the latest products. It also has weekly picks on fun rides to try out.

Back to Top

Short Tutorial  - Making Your ISP's Homepage Your Start Page

Usually when you update to a newer version of a Web browser, the browser overrides the web page you previously had set up as your start page. (Your start page is the first web page that appears each time you go online.) Most users want to utilize their Internet Service Provider's homepage as their start page so they can keep posted on any scheduled maintenance periods for service upgrades, important virus or hoax bulletins, etc. If your start page has been switched from your previous default start page, here's how to get your start page back to showing our homepage as your start page:

When Using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Browser Software and Windows XP:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
   
   
2. Click your cursor on "Tools" in the menu bar. Drop down to "Internet Options."
   
   
3. When the "Internet Options" window opens, make sure the "General" tab is selected. You will know that it is selected because it will appear in front of the others.
   
   
4. From the General Tab under "Home Page," hit the delete key on your keyboard to erase the URL (web address) that is already there, and then type in the web address of our homepage.
   
   
5. Click your cursor arrow on "Apply" then click "OK."
   
   
6. To test, click your cursor arrow on the "Home" button of your browser's toolbar. This should load your new start page.

Back to Top

We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop. If yo u have any questions, comments, or suggestions that you would like to submit, please click: HERE .

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Dave Dircks
NDTC General Manager
North Dakota Telephone Company

©2003 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this eNewsletter are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.